SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Oct. 16, 2014) — The Awards process for the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards® continues as first-round ballots were mailed yesterday to nearly 12,000 voting members of The Recording Academy®. Completed ballots must be returned to the accounting firm Deloitte Consulting LLP by 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Ballots received after the deadline will not be counted.

More than 20,000 entries were received this year, of which 17,144 remained valid. The creation of this Entry List for the 57th GRAMMY Awards included:

1,770 Academy members and 417 record labels and/or media companies who made entries

17 full-time employees and five (5) temporary employees who processed the entries over 15 weeks
290 volunteer genre experts from all over the country who convened during the last two weeks of September to help screen the entries into their appropriate categories.

Nominations for the 57th GRAMMY Awards will be announced the first week of December. Final ballots will go out on Dec. 17, 2014, and will be due to Deloitte on Jan. 16, 2015, 5 p.m. PT. After the final tabulation of votes, winners’ names will remain confidential in sealed envelopes until the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

The music industry’s premier event will take place live on Sunday, Feb, 8, 2015, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on the CBS Television Network from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

For the upcoming 57th GRAMMY Awards, the eligibility period is Oct. 1, 2013, through Sept. 30, 2014, and includes 83 Categories in 30 Fields. For a complete list of Categories, click here. Changes to this year’s GRAMMY Awards process were announced earlier this year, and details can be found at: http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/57th-announcement.